By Charles E. Rice
(Note:† This address was given at the Twenty-Ninth
Annual National Wanderer Forum, October 11-13, 1996, in
††††††††††† Weíre talking about kind of a negative topic, how bad it is, the culture and all of that. Iíve got to tell† you, I think this is a great time to be around.† We have no choice. This is the only time weíre around, right? But I really think this is a great time for us to be here. And maybe what would help would be if, at the outset, we put things in perspective. We tend to be dismissed as downers and naysayers and all the rest of that. I donít think itís true at all. The Holy Father has said so many times that weíre on the verge of a springtime of Christianity. I believe it. I see the signs all over the place.† You would not have gotten thirty ñ we could have gotten many times more ñ thirty college and university students who would write the kinds of letters explaining why they wanted to be here;† you wouldnít have gotten that ten years ago. You really wouldnít. I can see it in our classrooms, in the schools. There is something going on here. You can see it in the religious congregations that are growing. You can see it in the dioceses that have vocations.† This is not a time to be down in the dumps. It really isnít.
††††††††††† Pope John Paul II has called for three years of preparation for the new millennium. Itís a time of complete confidence, because weíre on the winning side. Not only that, the other guys have nothing to offer. Thatís why this is such a great time to be around, because itís become so abundantly clear that weíre really the only game in town. Not us, not because of us, but simply because weíre retailing the truth.† And I would like just very briefly to suggest four things that we ought to focus on in our effort to not only proclaim the Word,† but to live the Word.
††††††††††† The first thing is prayer.† The first thing is we ought to pray. We ought to pray with absolute trust, and realize as Maximillian Kolbe put it, ìGod permits everything in view of the greater blessing.î But there are four things beyond that on which we should focus.† The first is the reality that the dignity of the person is the foundation of society.†† Thatís what John Paul is saying. What do I mean, the dignity of the person?
††††††††††† For three
hundred years, the philosophers and the politicians† have tried to organize society as if
God doesnít exist and as if there is no knowable eternal life for human beings.
Now if youíre organizing a legal system and a society for subjects that are
going to be here today and gone tomorrow and when they get hit by the truck,
they die and thatís the end of it, thatís entirely different from organizing a
society for subjects who are going to live forever. Weíve got to think about
that.† And weíve got to stop being
apologetic about it. Right here in D.C., thereís some kid whoís going to be
born tonight and nine months ago his life began.† Youíve got to think about this. You think,
this is
††††††††††† There are two principles that follow from that. One is solidarity.† We are not isolated individuals milling around with no relation to others. Thatís the Enlightenment view: That in the state of nature, people were milling around. In Hobbeís view they were hostile and in Lockeís view, they were kind of nice but they needed a judge, a common judge, and they got together and they formed the State. And the only reason they are bound in the State, in society, the only reason they have relation to anybody else is their own consent. Thatís the Enlightenment view. Thatís the origin of pro-choice, that people have no intrinsic relation to others;† that the husband and wife donít have an intrinsic, continuing relation unless they continue to consent; even the mother doesnít have an intrinsic relation to her child unless she consents.
††††††††††† What John Paul is telling us, the vision that we should not apologize for, is that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. The Nature of God, of the Persons of God is relation and gift. And we have something to offer that is great; itís the notion of the person as gift. You are truly a person only through the free gift of yourself. We are our brothersí keepers. This is great stuff.† Thatís the basis for solidarity.
††††††††††† There are two principles on which you organize society. The other is subsidiarity. Because man has an eternal destiny, he is not exhausted by the State. Heís got a destiny that transcends the State. Thatís why the State should not take over everything. And thatís why things should be done by the family, by persons, by private organizations, and by local rather than central government. These are things that weíve got to emphasize. Weíve also got to emphasize the Natural Law.
††††††††††† For the last hundred years or so, the academics in this country have tried to talk about the Natural Law† in a dismissive kind of way. The only way you could talk about Natural Law was if you concluded that nobody knows what it is and nobody can define it. And I think itís about time we said to people, everything has a nature.† If you went out to have lunch and you ordered a barbed wire sandwich, it wouldnít be good for you. Itís not your nature. Youíre not a trash compactor. Even if you were sincere, pro-choice, liberated, youíd be sick. Weíre not talking about just bodily nature but moral nature, human nature. Everything has a nature. You know, when† you talk about Natural Law, you drop a rock into the water and it sinks.† When you take a human being and he overeats, he gets into trouble. When you take a human being and he violates the laws of his nature in regard to morality, he gets into trouble.
††††††††††† The thing that is overlooked today that we have to stop apologizing for, is the reality that every law has to have a lawgiver. It doesnít make any sense to talk about a law without a lawgiver. Whereíd the law come from? Youíve got to have a guy that gave the law.† The guy who gave the Natural Law is the Big Guy, itís God. Not only that, but we have to respond to the statement of a justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Iredell in 1798 who said, ìWe canít use natural law† because the wisest and purest men have differed on what it means.î And the response to that is that† the Author of the Natural Law is God.†† And Christ is God and He has given us a great gift of an interpreter of that Natural Law. The Natural Law is accessible to reason, but we have the Magisterium, which was given to us by the Author of that Law.
††††††††††† One factor of that Law, the third thing† weíve got to emphasize, is the defining element of contraception. Weíve got to come out of the trenches on this. Weíve got to start very carefully, but very strongly, saying that the defining vice of our age is really not abortion.† Itís contraception because in contraception, man makes himself† the arbiter of when life begins. And if youíre the arbiter of when life begins, youíre going to be the arbiter of when it ends. Weíve got to say that. And weíve got to say it very loudly and clearly.
††††††††††† And finally, the last thing is that I think we ought to say weíre not going to tolerate treating abortion as a negotiable political issue. The Wanderer Forum Foundation is not political. We donít endorse anybody, we donít take partisan positions, but we can speak our mind on moral issues. And abortion is not a negotiable issue. In a civilized society, the only legitimate question is whether innocent human beings should be legally killed. The Supreme Court says yes. And the only legitimate question is whether they should be legally killed. The pro-life movement, unfortunately, especially over the past fifteen years, has framed the issue not in terms of whether but in terms of which.† And by advocating exceptions, by advocating a stateís rights position, by saying weíll† take this, weíll take a little bit here and try to get a little bit later, they have continually reaffirmed the nonpersonhood of the unborn child. Because if your life is subject to extinction at the discretion of anybody else, youíre† a nonperson. So instead of arguing whether† innocent human beings can be legally killed, our leaders erroneously, the pro-life movement to a great extent, have been themselves framing the issue in terms of which:† Which innocent human beings will be killed. During the past year, came the fitting culmination† of that whole thing when the issue was framed not in terms of whether and not in terms of which but in terms of how. So the entire focus was put on the partial-birth abortion act, which was tactically a very important constructive move, because it heightened awareness of the diabolic evil of abortion, but the tendency is to regard that as the goal.
††††††††††† And† while attention was fixed on the Partial Birth Abortion Act, the FDA, without anybody noticing hardly, gave approval for† RU-486 and other early abortifacients. And those are really the abortions of the future.
††††††††††† So itís about time we came out of the bombshelters on this and itís about time we said, Hey guys, weíre offering here a vision of the human person, that every state should recognize the dignity of the person, as founded on his eternal destiny. And we should say we affirm the Natural Law and weíre not going to pretend that the Natural Law fell out of the trees, but that Natural Law comes from a Law-Giver, and John Paul is his Vicar, His authoritative interpreter. We should say that we really canít coherently deal with these issues unless we confront contraception. And we should say that when it comes to the destruction of innocent life, the legalized destruction of innocent life, there really canít be any exceptions. There canít be any exceptions because life comes from God, it does not come from the State.†††
††††††††††† I think if we do this, if we follow† this, we can take heart finally from a comment that Cardinal† Gagnon †made a few years ago when he was describing a conversation he had with the Pope. He was the head of the Council on the Family. The Cardinal said the Pope complimented him on his work and then he said ó this is the Cardinal quoting the Pope, John Paul: ìError makes its way because the truth is not taught. Do not spend your time trying to rebut all those who are teaching error. There are so many of them, †that would never end. Instead, teach the truth. When you teach the truth, a grace goes with it. And later on, when that person needs that grace, it will be there. But if you donít speak the truth, no grace goes with it.î†
††††††††††† The Cardinal said that impressed him very much. I think it should impress us because it is† simple. Weíre on the winning side; God is not dead, Heís not even tired and we are really in a great time. This is really a great time to be here, no kidding, because weíve got the only answer in town and weíre absolutely certain we are on the winning side.